You're reading: Security Service prevents separatist-orchestrated ‘terrorist attack’ at Dnipropetrovsk rally

Ukraine’s Security Service, or the SBU, detained a man who allegedly planned to carry out a “terrorist act” at a pro-Kyiv rally on March 28 in the southeastern city of Dnipropetrovsk, the KGB-successor agency says on its website.

Authorities found a
rocket-propelled grenade launcher, two hand grenades with fuses, ammunition of
various caliber and video surveillance devices at his residence. Information
found on the suspect’s mobile phone and computer contained evidence of “illegal
activity,” the SBU said.

The March 28 rally
was prompted by a shake-up in the Dnipropetrovsk administration that has
triggered concerns of a security crisis in the region. Former Dnipropetrovsk
governor Igor Kolomoisky, who with his team was credited with protecting the
region from pro-Russian separatists throughout the past year, resigned from his
post on March 24. Two of his deputies soon followed suit.

Their departure sparked
speculation that the region, which borders Donetsk where Russian forces and
their allies have waged war since mid-April, could fall to the separatists.

Shortly after Kolomoisky’s
resignation, SBU head Valentin Nalivaychenko, told journalists that authorities
were expecting “provocations” from separatists in the region.

The detained suspect had been
tasked with scoping out the area of the rally in order to commit the terrorist
act there, the SBU said.

Donetsk regional separatists
had provided the materials for the attack after having recruited the suspect
over social media last July, according to the agency.

The suspect, identified only
as a 34-year-old resident of
Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, told SBU officers that he had been tasked with gathering information on
Ukraine’s armed forces and establishing a guerrilla group to carry out acts of
sabotage throughout the country.

A criminal case has been
opened against him on charges of violating the territorial integrity of
Ukraine.

The arrest was one of two
major victories for the Security Service on March 27, as the suspected killer
of one of the service’s own agents was detained earlier in the day while trying
to flee to the European Union.

The suspect in the murder of
SBU Captain Viktor Mandzyk, identified as Denis Gordeyev, had been hiding out
in Zakarpattya Oblast, where he was preparing counterfeit identification
documents to cross the Ukrainian border, the Security Service said.

The killing of Mandzyk in
Donetsk Oblast on March 21 sparked a massive manhunt, with 11 people detained
in connection with the case.

President Petro Poroshenko
said the capture of the suspect in the case was “matter of honor.” After the
suspect’s arrest, the president informed Mandzyk’s loved ones of the news.

Porohshenko also vowed that
the investigation would continue, and that “all those who were involved in the
murder
will be found and punished.”